The Kenyan government has failed in its human rights obligations towards one half of its citizens and should urgently reform its laws and practices to end the impunity of those who commit violence against women," Amnesty International said in a new report on Kenya.

More than 6,400 Sierra Leoneans in Liberia have returned home on convoys organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since mid-February, with thousands more helped with transportation from the border.

Amnesty International is gravely concerned about the high risk of violence in the aftermath of the elections held on 9, 10 and 11 March 2002, especially in light of the departure of many international election observers.

It was out in the countryside of Zimbabwe that Robert Mugabe stole the presidential election. Away from prying eyes, Mr Mugabe's loyal party henchmen executed a psephological sleight of hand that was as crude as it was ambitious. Ballot boxes were stuffed, opposition supporters were told to vote for Mr Mugabe on pain of death and turnouts were grossly inflated to favour the 78-year-old leader.

A cloud of bitterness, dejection and anxiety about the future hung over Harare yesterday, but despite outbreaks of low-level violence there was no sign of any appetite for a mass uprising to unseat the re-elected President Robert Mugabe.

A three-day workshop aimed at strengthening efforts to fight child trafficking in West and Central Africa began on Wednesday in Libreville, Gabon.

As the reported cases of political violence in Zimbabwe rose on Friday, South African President Thabo Mbeki hit out at "white supremacists" critical of the Commonwealth and African response to the deepening crisis.

Angolans waited anxiously on Monday for a promised government statement on its plan to resume peace talks with rebel movement UNITA, as the humanitarian situation in the country continued to deteriorate.

Eritreans around the world have been protesting against a resolution issued by the European Parliament last month accusing Eritrea of human rights violations.

The United States government has expressed disappointment at what it regards as a general deterioration of human rights in Tanzania last year, despite notable government efforts to engage in dialogue with the opposition.

The government of Uganda's declared intention to see internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Uganda go home from this month is welcome, but there are still substantial issues to be addressed in relation to their return, integration, resettlement and recovery, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

The various factions present at the inter-Congolese dialogue talks in Sun City, South Africa, began tabling their proposals for rebuilding their country on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government on Tuesday proposed a leading rebel as a potential prime minister of a transitional government.

A meeting to prepare for a reconciliation conference involving Liberia's political groups, civil society organisations and warring parties is due to begin on Thursday in Abuja, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reported.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended a six-month extension of the UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

The Pentagon's new blueprint on nuclear forces has raised the question whether the Bush administration is lowering the threshold for using nuclear arms. In its Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon cites the need for new nuclear arms that could have a lower yield and produce less nuclear fallout. The weapons, the Pentagon said, could be designed to destroy underground complexes, including stores of chemical and biological arms. The targets might be situated in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya or North Korea, a reorientation away from cold war scenarios involving Russia.

African states come down on the side of Mugabe, while the West slams the poll as unfair.

President Mbeki is the one man who can make an immediate difference as Mugabe pushes Zimbabwe further towards anarchy. It is a time for leadership, writes ZWNEWS.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the government of Rwanda have agreed to establish a four-member taskforce to investigate the alleged mistreatment of witnesses at the tribunal. The team will also investigate claims that people suspected to have been involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda are working as defense investigators at the ICTR.

A food shortage has forced a United Nations agency to slash aid rations to the bare minimum for 50,000 Congolese refugees in Zambia, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Saturday.